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AN ADDRESS 



BY 

GENERAL SELDEN CONNOR 

MAY 5, 1909 

AT A 

Meeting of the Maine Commandery of the Military Order 

of the Loyal Legion of the United States at 

Riverton Park Casino, Portland, 

Maine, to commemorate 

the J 

ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH 

OF 

HANNIBAL HAMLIN 

IN PARIS, MAINE, AUGUST 27, 1909 



PRESS OF 

The thos- W, Burr Printing Cc 
bangor. maine 



"I point you to the whole Union as a monument of political grandeur, towering 
toward the heavens, upon which the friend of freedom, wherever upon our globe 
he may be, may gaze; around whose highest summit the sunlight of glory forever 
shines, and at whose base a free people reposes, and, I trust, forever will repose." 

— HANNIBAL HAMLIN 



"HANNIBAL HAMLIN, of Maine, whose clear head, firm principles, and ample 
experience, none who sat with him in the Senate can contest." 

— CHARLES SUMNER 



"MR. HAMLIN was, I think, the most influential man in the Senate when I 
entered it, and until he left it. . . . He was a sturdy, rugged character, like an 
old gnarled oak, inflexibly honest, absolutely fearless, always ready to do battle in 
any cause he deemed just and righteous, a lover of liberty, wise, understanding 
thoroughly the mechanism of our government, trusting the people, loving his 
country and loving his State." 

— GEORGE F. HOAR 






Je'O? 





'^c^^^^^-r^C /^'^..^. 



Hannibal Hamlin 



The praise of Lincoln lias hardly ceased echoing tiiroughout the 
world, evoked by the hundredth anniversary of his birthday. This 
year is also the centenary of Handin, Lincoln's fellow standard- 
bearer, trusted friend and counselor. It is proper that at this 
meeting the centennial of the birth of Handin, a few months hence, 
should be anticipated and our evening devoted to loving memory of 
him and to the recollection of his many and high claims to good 
fame and enduring honor among men. It is especially fitting that 
the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States should 
be mindful of this great friend and supporter of the Union, since 
the chief of its objects is "to cherish the associations and memories 
of the war vvaged in defence of the unity and indivisibility of the 
Republic," and because Handin was elected a companion of the 
Order by the Mother C'ommandery at Philadelphia under tiiat 
section of the constitution which made eligible to membership "those 
gentlemen who in civil life, during the Rebellion, were especially dis- 
tinguished for conspicuous and consistent loyalty to the National 
Government, and were active and eminent in maintainine; the 
supremacy of the same." It is the high privilege of the Com- 
mandery of Maine to initiate the memorial exercises in honor of the 
centenary of Handin, since he was a companion of this Com- 
mandery by transfer and was the noblest representative of Maine in 
the great struggle for Freedom and Unity that will make the middle 
of the idneteenth century forever memorable. Following our lead 
the state and the country will no doubt pause for a moment at this 
milestone of history, roll back the tide of years and disclose the 
merits of this preeminent citizen, this great American, and declare 
his standin<>: in "the title deeds of fame, his hold and heritage in 
distant times." 



6 HANNIBAL HAMLIN 

The life of Hamlin, extending from August 27, 1809 to July 4, 
1891, embraced the most interesting and eventful period in the life 
of the Republic if not of the historic world. Conspicuous as was 
his share in the public life of that period throughout the years of 
his manhood, full credit for all his worth and woi'k must wait for 
their just and full estimate upon the eternal years of God. The 
view-point from which the men of action and their deeds in the 
crisis of the Republic will be regarded with due interest and appre- 
ciation, lies somewhere among the coming years. Scattered through- 
out the country here and there are aged men who, whether partici- 
pants or observers, recall with feelings approaching awe the great 
men and mighty scenes that held the boards when, in their lifetime, 
the colossal drama of Freedom and Union was enacted. But the 
great majority are comparatively indifferent. They have but a 
languid interest in matters antedating their personal experience and 
not yet crystalized into history. The very greatness and beneficence 
of those years bore in themselves the germs of forgetfulness, since the 
new life they gave the nation is so fiercely aglow with the absorbing 
activities of the present, and so bent on the beckoning promises of 
the future, as to leave no interval for the consideration of the dead 
past. 

Yet it must be that a man of the noblest type of American man- 
hood, who gave nearly fifty years of his life to the devoted, 
courageous and effective service of his country, can never be wholly 
forgotten by his countrymen and that it requires but the touch of 
suggestion to quicken in loyal minds and hearts the memories of the 
greatness and the goodness of Hannibal Hamlin. 

Among the many points of resemblance between Lincoln and 
Hamlin was that of self-education. While Hamlin was born in a 
fairly well-to-do family and was surrounded from childhood with the 
refinements and culture that were unknown to the pioneer boy, he 
was balked of his desire and intention to take a college course by 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN 7 

the pressing need of his services at home on the farm. After less 
than a year at an academy he was forced to depend for his further 
education upon such reading as he could pursue between long days 
of labor and short nights of rest and while at his work. At the 
same time young Lincoln was reading by the firelight and in the 
noontide rest. Both boys found good friends who gave them 
valuable counsel and assistance and had the wisdom and tact to 
make their influence felt. Both were the acknowledged leaders, 
physically and intellectually, of the boys and young men who were 
their respective associates. The art of surveying was among the 
accjuisitions common to them both and each had a little experience 
in storekeeping. They were one in the purpose to become lawyers. 
Thus fate was guiding these two boys, one in Maine and one in 
Illinois, along similar ways destined to converge and bring the two 
together on the highest summit within the ken of human ambition. 
Fate duplicated her favor when she assigned instructors in law to 
these students. The chance or judgment that led Hamlin to the 
office of Fessenden and Deblois was most fortunate. The members 
of that firm were the leaders of the Cumberland bar. They took a 
warm interest in their promising pupil and the friendly relations 
then established between the instructors and the student lasted 
through their lives. A year's time was all that the farmer boy 
could afford to devote to study exclusively— the law school was far 
beyond his means — and then came his admission to the bar at the 
age of twenty-four, followed by his marriage in the same year and 
his entrance on the practice of his profession in the town of Hamp- 
den, a town ever after as noted for being the home of Hannibal 
Hamlin as Carrollton was for being that of Charles Carroll. 

Two years of residence and practice so impressed his neighbors and 
those with whom he came in contact with his manly qualities and his 
intellectual abilities that they elected him as their representative to 
the legislature which met in 1S3(). He was by successive re-elections 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN 



five years a member of the House of Representatives. In his second 
term, when he was but twenty-seven years of age, he was elected 
speaker and was re-elected when his party returned to power for each 
of the two remaining years of his service in the House — a record 
which has never been equalled in that body. His biographer well 
says "The key to Hannibal Hamlin's success is to be found in his 
legislative training and experience." Congresses differ but little 
from legislatures. The difference mainly is one not of kind but of 
degree, arising from the broader field of action of the national 
body and the more important interests that come before it. The 
young man who had filled the speaker's chair of the legislature for 
three years had so mastered the machinery of parliamentary pro- 
ceedings that he had no need to "orient" himself when he entered 
the national House an.d thus he had the important advantage over 
most new members of being able to take part in its proceedings at 
once and with perfect confidence. Throughout his Congressional 
career he was regarded as an authority on parliamentary law and 
custom. The legislature is an admirable school for studying human 
nature. Men of different degrees of ability and with various stand- 
ards of morality, working singly or in combination for ends not 
always obvious, from single or complex motives, their secret influ- 
ence sometimes failing to support their public statements and 
avowed objects, — sometimes sneaking treachery in the shadows leer- 
ing at loyalty in the open — present a microcosm of humanity 
wherein the devotee of "the proper study of mankind" may find the 
richest opportunities for pursuing his observations from day to day 
and arriving at conclusions. The young speaker profited by the 
object-lessons before him and became an adept in reading men. 
His fellow members had opportunities for estimating him as well and 
it was undoubtedly the most profitable reward of his legislative ser- 
vice that he so thoroughly established himself in their esteem as to 
make many lifelong friends among them — strong and influential 
men who mightily upheld liim in his after career. 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN 



9 



Perhaps tlic most notable action of his in tlie pi-riod of his legis- 
hitive experience, and the one most vitally affecting his subse- 
quent political life was the unmistakable stand he took on the 
question of slavery at a time when parties were not divided on that 
issue. The occasion grew out of the suggestion that a petition 
relatiuir to the abolition of slavery should not be received. The 
young patriot, while disavowing sympathy with the abolitionists, 
indignantly asserted the inviolability of the right of petition. 
Going farther he declared his opposition to slavery as a curse 
and a moral wrong to be endured only so far as the constitu- 
tion required it to be maintained. He expressed the hope that 
it might in some way be abolished and added in words of peculiar 
significance in view of the great event in after years. "It may die 
out, but God is sure in his own way and time to put an end 
to it."" His opposition to slavery grew, if possible, stronger and 
stronger as time went on. It led him to stand against the domi- 
nant power of his party, the Democratic party, and to become 
one of the foremost leaders in upbuilding the great party founded 
on the proposition that Freedom is national. Slavery is sectional. 
The analysts of the character and characteristics of Lincoln have 
not given due importance to the peculiarity which so strongly 
differentiated him and which gave him a constant rule and guide 
of conduct — the strength of his hold on his convictions. He was 
slow and careful in forming them, — how careful is indicated by 
his reading six books of Euclid to impress upon his mind the 
full significance of a "demonstration*" — but once formed he did 
not depart from them. That characteristic was Hamlin''s also. 
His convictions were firmly his and were never assailed by faint 
doubts. The trying period beginning with the aggressive activity 
of the pro-slavery party in Congress and lasting to the end of the 
war, was an especially distressful one to the trimmers who were 
anxious to be on the winning side and to those amiable men who 



10 HANNIBAL HAMLIN 

held lojal convictions but were not sure whether it was not their 
duty to modify or surrender them for the sake of peace. Lincohi 
and Hamlin so far possessed their souls in peace in that they had 
no uncertainty as to thfe object in view and therefore could con- 
centrate all their energies on devising ways and means to attain it. 

It is not to be wondered at that Hamlin always considered his 
years of service in the Maine Legislature as the happiest time in 
his life. He was young, honored, surrounded by friends and 
admirers and had the work he liked best to do. 

Then there occurred a break in his public service. He was a 
candidate for Congress in 1840 and was beaten by his Whig com- 
petitor. That was the year when Maine went so profanely for 
Governor Kent. After three years of the practice of his profession 
he was again a candidate for Congress and this time he turned the 
tables on his former competitor and gained the election. A writer 
has this to say of him as a member of the 'iSth Congress : — "Natu- 
rally enough, in what was then the small and contracted political 
and social circle of Washington, a man of Mr. Hamliirs striking 
appearance and many attainments was not long in making his 
mark. Tall and graceful in figure, with black and piercing eyes, 
a skin almost olive-colored, hair smootii, thick and jetty, a manner 
always courteous and affable, the new member soon found his 
way into the best society of the Capital. His advancement to a 
commanding position in the political world was quite as rapid." 
He was re-elected for a second term and in LSlC) he was brought 
forward as a candidate for the Senate. The split between the pro- 
slavery and the anti-slavery men had just begun to appear. 
Hamlin had made himself obnoxious to the "doughface" element 
of his party by his fearless and outspoken stand in Congress against 
every measure that tended to increase the area of slavery and 
on that account he lost the election by one vote. James W. Brad- 
bury was the successful compromise candidate. His friends desired 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN 11 

him to be a candidate for re-election to the House. . He declined 
to be considered for another term and returned to his home in 
Hampden under the impression that he had withdrawn from 
politics. But he was at once met by the urgent solicitation of 
his friends that he would solve local troubles in the party by 
becomin<^ a candidate for the legislature. He consented, was 
elected in spite of the opposition of the pro-slavery element in the 
party, and, once more in Augusta, he renewed the contest against 
slavery he had there initiated and which for four years he had 
continued in Washington. 

He returned to Augusta under a fortunate star. A vacancy was 
caused in the Senate by the death of Senator Fairfield in that year. 
Handin's course in the legislature had strengthened the anti-slavery 
cause and made friends for himself who rallied around him in the 
contest for the nomination and by superior generalship overcame 
the carefully laid plans of the enemy and made him the candidate. 
At the age of 31) he became a senator. On taking his seat he found 
that the same old fight he had been engaged in when he was in the 
House, was on in the Senate — over the admission of Oregon. He 
made an im[)ortant contribution to the discussion of that question 
in a speech notable also because among those who listened to it with 
interest and approval was Abraham Lincoln then a mend)er of the 
House. In March, 1850, he made a speech on the admission of 
California on the day following the last speech of Calhoun and in 
answer to it. This speech attracted a great deal of attention, and 
was regarded as establishing the new senator's reputation as one of 
the first debaters in the Senate — and that too in a Senate containing 
such debaters as Webster, Calhoun, Clay, Benton, Crittenden, 
Reverdy Johnson, Stephen A. Douglas and others. 

Senator Hamlin was compelled to pass thi'ough a very strenuous 
campaign before he was re-elected by the legislature of IS;")!). The 
pro-slavery pai'ty had been gathering strength and had full control 



12 HANNIBAL HAMLIN 

of the Democratic "niacliine" in Maine. Naturally the leaders did 
not approve the course of the young senator who had made himself 
prominent on the anti-slavery side. When they found that they 
could neither break nor bend him they determined to defeat him at 
any cost. When bad men conspire good men must necessarily unite. 
The contest lasted many weeks and its plots and counterplots were 
as complicated as a Sherlock Holmes story. When chairs for the 
study of practical politics are established in our universities the 
Maine senatorial campaign of 18'")() may well serve as the Waterloo 
or Gettysburg of the course. The trium[)h was brought about by a 
union of the Free Soilers with the anti-slavery Democrats. Several 
similar cases in other parts of the country indicated that a new 
arrangement of the political forces of the country was on the way. 
Hamlin's victory was joyfully acclaimed by the anti-slavery people 
of all parties in Maine and throughout the country. 

Franklin Pierce was not Hamlin's choice for the presidency. 
But he accepted Pierce loyally, believing that he would keep the 
pledges in his letter of acceptance and his inaugural address not to 
disturb the compromises that had effected a peaceful condition of 
affairs after the long period of excitement. He was from the first 
somewhat distrustful of Pierce owing to the fact that the ultra pro- 
slavery men surrounded him and seemed to have his confidence. 
His suspicions were more than confirmed when like lightning from 
a clear sky the proposition to repeal the Missouri compromise was 
brought forward, apparently with the approval of the administra- 
tion. The Maine Senator had proof positive of Pierce's complicity 
in the plot when the president sent for him and undertook to bribe 
him to vote for the repeal with liberal offers of patronage- We 
who remember Hannibal Hamlin can imagine the scene in the White 
House : — 

"Mr. President, did you ask me to come here expecting to get 
me to aid you in repealing the compromise ? " 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN lo 

"Yes," replied Mr. Pierce after a moment's hesitation, "I did." 

"Then, sir, I must say to you," repHed Mr. Hamlin earnestly, 
"that during the more than forty years I have lived I have doubtless 
made many mistakes, but I have never lost self-respect. I would do 
so should I vote for the repeal of the Missouri conn)romise. It is 
needless to say more and I sliall bid you good morning." 

This was the last time Handin spoke with Franklin Pierce and 
the last time he entered the White House as a member of the 
Democratic party. 

Upon the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in IS^J, our 
senator notified the leaders of his party that if the party at its next 
convention should endorse the doctrine of non-intervention in the 
territories, he should leave it. In the meantime he anticipated the 
action of the convention and was counted among those opposed to 
the administration. When the Cincinnati convention nominated 
Buchanan and adopted an extreme pro-slavery platform. Senator 
Handin, in a brief and forcible speech, formally renounced the 
chairmanship of the Conniiittee on Commerce and severed his con- 
nection with the Democratic party. 

The changed allegiance of a United States Senator who had 
been for many years so prominent and who enjoyed so liigh a 
reputation for patriotism, lionesty and sincerity, naturally made a 
great sensation. In Maine the rejoicing was welcomed with the 
highest enthusiasm and delight. The rising Republican party 
insisted that he should become its candidate for governor. His 
campaign has been called a "whirlwind." The candidate headed 
his forces and addressed meetings all over the state, everywhere 
arousing enthusiasm by his forcible and eloquent speeches in Ix'half 
of the Pathfinder candidate for the presidency and the young party 
of Freedom. That was a joyful season for thousands of patriots 
— men in all parties who discovered that the bond which united 
them to each other was stronger than mere party attachments — 



14 . HANNIBAL HAMLIN 

who felt that at last the overpowering- issue was clearly presented 
and all who wished their country to advance under the light of 
Freedom must stand shoulder to shoulder. Drawn together by 
devotion to the highest principles and the noblest aspirations they 
looked into each others faces and were glad in the liberty of the 
new allegiance, filled with an exulting sense of power and coming 
triumph because their cause was just and all l>earts were true to it. 
Judge Carter, one of the staunchest of Hamlin's friends, was 
then editor of the Portland Advertiser. Years afterwards, when 
judge of the municipal court of Haverhill, Massachusetts, he told 
this incident of the campaign: — The Advertiser in the contest of 
1856 published every day a list of recruits to the standard of the 
new party. The publication of the names made work for the cam- 
paign managers in that district since it exposed their accessions to 
the attempts of the deserted party to bring them back to their 
allegiance ; but it was of great help to the party elsewhere. A 
rally had been held in Gorham. There was a band and a large 
attendance from the surrounding country. The next day Judge 
Carter met one of the converts from the Democratic ranks whose 
name had appeared in the paper of that morning — "We had a fine 
meeting at Goihani yesterday, didn't we?" said the judge. 
"Ya-a-as" was the reply, "quite a big meetin' but there was too 
much denied noise." "O, I don't know about that," replied the 
judge, "the people were interested and happy and showed it, that 
was all." "Ye needn't tell me," retorted the critical neophyte, "I 
was there an' I tell ye there was too much d — d clappin' and 
hoorawin'. I see one feller who had only one arm and he stood up 
and clapped his leg with his one hand." The colloquy indicated 
that the man had not reached that high plane that would entitle 
him to be called "an honest politician" according to Tom Reed's 
definition — that he had not sufficient civic virtue to "stay bought." 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN 15 

The Republican candidate for governor was triumphantly elected : 
but the new party was not yet sufficiently strong to elect a president. 
Governor Hamlin resigned after a few weeks' service, was elected 
to the Senate as his own successor and took his seat on the 4th of 
March. 

There were twenty Republican senators in this senate. And what 
men they were ! The list now sounds like that of the kings 
and chiefs who followed Agamennion to Troy ^ — like the roll of 
Napoleon's marshals or Washington's generals, or the names of the 
leaders who wandered with Aeneas — ''brave Gyas," "strong Cloan- 
thus" and the rest : — Hamlin and Fessenden, Sumner and Wilson, 
Foster and Dixon, Hale and Bell, Collamer and Foot, Seward and 
King, Simmons, Simon Cameron, Ben Wade, Zach Chandler, 
Durkee and Doolittle, Lyman Trumbull, and James Harlan. 
Among them were able statesmen, profound lawyers, eloquent ora- 
tors, keen debaters, skilful parliamentarians, highly educated and 
scholarly men, and men whose strong native powers compensated 
for the lack of the polish of the schools. Their quality made them 
much more than a "respectable minority" in the Senate. They 
were inspired with the high moral courage which came of their faith 
in the righteousness of the cause they represented, and the primal 
physical courage of the strong man also infused the little phalanx 
with its virile spirit. Tlie days of misunderstanding were over. 
Compromises had had their day. The majority were already con- 
spiring to make the Union such as they would have it. The minor- 
ity were conscious tiiat evil was brewing and so they were on their 
guard and observed the conspirators 

" With watch as cireuinspect as seamen keep 
When iu the night the leeward breakers flash." 

The "arrogant old plantation" way was a punctured terror. The 

heroic form and countenance of Chandler, the new senator from 

Michigan, and his fearless bearing had their effect on friend and foe. 

It was known that he was ready to defend his honor and his cause 



10 HANNIBAL HAMLIN 

in any arena to which he might be challenged. There is good 
authority for the story that Chandler, Cameron and Wade made a 
solemn compact that they would put an end at any cost to insolence 
to Republican senators and attempts to browbeat them. Hamlin 
may not have been a party to the formal agreement : but it cannot 
be doubted that he would have co-operated at need because the 
senators constituting the triumvirate were his closest friends and 
associates. The biographer of Chandler says "A close personal 
intimacy with Mr. Wade, Mr. Hamlin and Mr. Cameron sprung up 
at this time, and general agreement of opinion on public questions 
led them into concerted action as representatives of the more 
"radical" element. Much of their work was beneath the surface 
and is not a matter of record, but the results of their efforts at that 
crisis to infuse vigor by all possible means into the lifeless national 
sentiment of the North and to prepare the people for the coming 
struggle, were important and durable." The friendship between 
the strong man of Maine and the strong man of Michigan was 
especially close and firm. 

The stormy years of Buchanan's administration during which 
attempts to perpetrate "the crime against Kansas" were persistently 
pushed until they received their quietus at the hands of the patriotic, 
freedom-loving people of the infant state, the splendid work of the 
Republicans in Congress, and the split in the Democratic party com- 
bined to make the Republican National Convention in Chicago on 
the IGth of May 1800 an imposing and enthusiastic assemblage. 
It was inspii'ed with devotion to the cause and confidence in the 
result of the campaign it was inaugurating. Many among the 
great leaders of the party had been suggested as candidates for the 
presidential nomination. Tlie nomination of Seward was generally 
considered a foregone conclusion ; but there were many sagacious 
politicians who did not regard Seward as the right man for leader 
in the troublous times evidently impending and who believed Lin- 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN 17 

coin was likely to be the choice of the convention. The fact that 
the Illinois man who had attracted the attention of the whole 
country by his powerful championship of Republican principles, 
had been brought to New York under the auspices of influential 
members of the party who did not favor Seward, and had made 
such an impression by his Cooper Institute speech, forcibly sug- 
gested the direction the wisest and most patriotic men were looking 
for the leader. Hamlin was a friend and admirer of Seward but 
he did not think Seward would be a strong enough candidate to win 
the election or that he possessed the qualities that a president should 
have in such an exigency. All he knew of Lincoln and could 
gather from western men in regard to him, led him to look upon the 
ffreat son of the West as the man of the hour. 

The sentiment of Maine was very strongly favorable to Seward. 
It was therefore necessary to proceed very cautiously and delicately 
in the endeavor to prevent the full vote of the state from being cast 
for him in the convention. Mr. Handin's course in this matter is 
a fair exann)le of his political sagacity and skill and of his honora- 
ble methods in political contests. He made it known that he was 
opposed to Seward because he did not think Seward could carry the 
doubtful states. Surely neither Seward nor his friends could find 
fault with Mr. Handin for his opposition on that score. At that 
golden stage of the party everybody was willing to subordinate the 
interests of individuals to those of the cause. The legislative 
caucus named four men for delegates at large to the Convention. 
They were known to be friendly to Seward ; but through the inHu- 
ence of Mr. Hamlin, among others, they were left free to act on 
their own judgment. Through Mr. Handin's foresight one district 
delegate inclined to Lincoln was chosen and, through his repre- 
sentations as to the undesirability of Seward as a candidate, two of 
the ablest of the delegates at large were ready to act with an open 
mind. Therefore three of the sixteen delegates were virtually for 



18 



HANNIBAI HAMLIN 



Lincoln. At Mr. Hamlin's suggestion one of the delegates can- 
vassed the delegations of the pivotal states of Pennsylvania, Illinois 
and Indiana and obtained from them in writing the names of three 
men who in their opinion could carry their respective states. The 
result of this test was to convince three more of the Maine dele- 
gates that Lincoln was the man, so that on the first vote six of the 
sixteen were for him. 

Owing to the suggestions and advances that had been made to 
him, Handin notified the Maine delegation that he should not 
accept a nomination for either the first or the second place. The 
sentiment in the Convention was so strong for the Maine Senator as 
the candidate for vice-president that the delegation believed them- 
selves warranted in falling in with it. On the second ballot he 
was chosen and the choice was made unanimous. It was with good 
reason that he was the voluntary, deliberate and unanimous choice 
of the young party. No man had a higher reputation for integrity, 
faithfulness, and absolute trustworthiness. No man had rendered 
greater, more faithful or valuable service to the cause. He had 
stood up for it so long and in such a conspicuous arena that he 
was known throughout the country and those that were nearest to 
him regarded him the most highly. He was especially qualified 
for a presiding officer by his good judgment, equable temperament, 
the easy dignity and natural affability of his manner and his 
exceptional familiarity with parliamentary law. Although policy 
had little to do with his selection, from that point of view also 
the nomination was a wise one since it coupled an eastern man 
of democratic antecedents with a western man who had been a 
whig. Mr. Hamlin, who was in Washington when the nomina- 
tion was announced, was greatly surprised and his inclination was 
to decline, but when it was suggested that ids refusal to accept 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN 10 

would be construed as a fear on his part that the ticket would not 
be successful the matter was settled promptly and he signified his 
acceptance. 

The loyal people bore the Republican banner to victory at the 
election. But the party in power had still some months in which 
to further their nefarious designs. Buchanan was for a time as 
dough in the liands of the fire-eaters — until weeping and alarmed 
at the appalling conditions to which his administration had brought 
the Union he called good and true men to his cabinet, too late to 
withstand the tide that had made such headway in its destructive 
course. Mr, Hamlin was of the opinion that Buchanan had 
assured the conspirators before his election that they need fear no 
opposition from him in carrying out their designs. It hardly 
seems necessary, in order to account for his acts, to ascribe them to 
malice aforethought. They were due, probably, to weakness rather 
than to wickedness. Senator DoUiver, when a representative, in 
a speech on the occasion of the acceptance by Congress of a statue 
of Grant presented by the Grand Army of the Republic, felici- 
tously and charitably disposed of the doddering old man in these 
words: — "James Buchanan was in no sense an ordinary man. 
He was all his lifetime, a leader of men, though he was left at 
the end of his generation impotently trying to answer elemental 
and volcanic questions with the dead phrases of an obsolete 
vocabulary." 

Soon after the election Lincoln initiated a correspondence with 
the vice-president elect and in November he requested Mr. Hamlin 
to meet him in Chicago. At that meeting he expressed his willing- 
ness to accept any advice that the vice-president might give him, 
and Mr. Hamlin assured him that although the precedents were not 
encouraging to intimate relations between the president and the 
vice-president, he pledged himself to be a good friend and to aid 
him to the extent of his powers. That pledge was fully redeemed. 



20 HANNIBAL HAMLIN 

The friendship then formed grew stronger through the stress and 
burdens of the years of their association. Lincohi sought HamKn''s 
advice in making up his cabinet and gave him the naming of the 
member from New Enghmd. Mr. Hamhn named Welles for 
Secretary of the Navy. He was never heard to boast of his 
appointee. 

When the new administration assumed the duties and responsi- 
bilities of government the prospect was far from exhilarating. 
Seven states had seceded and formed a confederacy with Jefferson 
Davis as its head. There was danger that others would follow 
them. But worse than the outright defection of these Southern 
states and the defiant attitude of the pro-slavery democracy, was 
the weak-kneed condition of the party that had so enthusiastically 
elected its candidates in November. The menace of disunion which 
had been treated with derision looked less and less like an empty 
threat as the days of the expiring administration grew fewer. The 
party of the North did not want disunion, still less did it want war. 
It would probably have sacrificed a large slice of principle to avert 
an armed contest. Happily the quality of its civic morality was 
not tested since the other side gave no sign of a willingness to treat. 
There were some iiowever who did not believe that there was any- 
thincp serious in the action and attitude of the South. Even Seward 
and Sumner were of the mind, after the inauguration even, that the 
the South was carrying out its usual policy of bluster and threat in 
order to procure concessions, and that there was no danger of actual 
armed resistance to the government. Hamlin was under no such 
illusions. He knew the Southern leaders well and he was con- 
fident that they meant to disru[)t the Union. One of iiis friends, 
Mr. Dunning of Bangor, was in Washington at the inauguration 
and on his return lie announced that Hannibal Hamlin had told 
him that war was coming and therefore it was sure to come. There- 
upon amid much jeering and chaffing he set about raising a com- 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN 21 

pany which became the nucleus for the Second Maine when the call 
for 7"), 000 men was made. 

After the inauguration of Lincoln there was a period of waiting 
on both sides which was so conducive to the sober second thought 
on the part of the people of the South, leading to doubts as to the 
wisdom of their course, that Jefferson Davis was told that he "must 
fling blood into the faces of the people" if he would keep them true 
to their new allegiance. Accordingly Sumter was attacked and 
captured. That act indeed fired the Southern heart, and it fired 
the Northern heart as well. The wavering and the apathy that had 
been growing since the election ceased as if by magic. The whole 
North was kindled with a burning enthusiasm and inspired with the 
deep determination to avenge the insult to the flag and to maintain 
the Union at all hazards. 

The vice-president was inclined to sympathize witii the radical 
element of the Republican l)arty which was impatient at the caution 
and deliberation exercised by the President, especially at the begin- 
ning of the war. From the first and all through the years of their 
association in the administration he was in close touch with the 
President, who was always ready to ask and receive his counsels. 
Respect and admiration grew with acquaintance and he was not 
long in learning how great a man was in the seat of responsibility 
and what all-embracing and far-seeing sagacity governed his course. 
He never criticised the President but accepted his action in every 
case as for the best, waited with confidence and, in the meantime, 
worked loyally to uphold and assist him. His official duty as the 
presiding officer of the Senate was the least part of his service. The 
leaders of the party were glad to admit him to their conferences and 
to have the benefit of his sound judgment and long experience. In 
private and in public his manner and his words gave confidence to 
the doubtful and strengthened the faint-hearted. Persistency is one 
of the chief attributes of the saints. People in the mass do not 



22 HANNIBAL HAMLIN 

seem to possess it. In the dark days of defeat or disappointment, 
appalled by the loss of life and weighed down by the financial 
burdens of the war, even the most loyal would have halted or turned 
back if Lincoln had not held them with a firm hand without seem- 
ing to entertain a doubt that they were steadfast in their purpose 
to maintain the Union, and if such trusted leaders as Hamlin had 
not given him their powerful aid. 

He gladly gave much time and attention to the interests of the 
State of Maine and of Maine soldiers and their friends, visiting the 
departments to personally attend to some matter of business for the 
State, procuring furloughs for sick or wounded soldiers, making 
arrangements for some anxious and bewildered father to go to the 
front to see a son in hospital, urging the promotion of worthy offi- 
cers, and otherwise befriending officers and men seeking advice or 
assistance. In addition to a patriotic interest in soldiers he had a 
special personal regard for them ; they had an attraction for him 
through his soldierly instincts. When a boy he would have gone to 
West Point but for his mother's desire that he should stay at home. 
Early in his residence at Hampden he was^ elected captain of the 
volunteer company of that vicinity and, it may be remarked in 
passing, he was largely indebted to his popularity in that capacity 
for his political advancement, in its early stages especially. Soon 
after the call for 7"), 000 men he attended a flag-raising at Hampden 
and after his speech he inforced his appeal for the support of the 
government by lining up his hearers and drilling them with pickets 
from a near-by fence in lieu of muskets. It is recorded in the 
Adjutant GeneraPs Report that Hannibal Hamlin was a private in 
Company A, Maine State Guards. He enlisted early in the war 
and served in the ranks several weeks when the company was ordered 
on duty. Thus he earned his membership in the Grand Army of 
the Republic which he greatly prized. He attended many encamp- 
ments of that Army and was always warmly welcomed by his com- 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN 23 

rades. His two sons rendered longer and more active military ser- 
vice — General Cryus Hamlin, who served through the war with great 
credit and whose death soon after its close cat short a life of 
brilliant promise, and our honored Com[)anion, General Charles 
Hamlin. 

To a great many loyal persons, — not all of them of a highly 
developed devout nature — the guiding hand of Providence seems 
remarkably apparent in the vicissitudes of the war and the conduct 
of the affairs of the Union. But it must be by faith alone, by a 
recognition of the limitations of finite beings, that the act of a 
beneticient Ruler can be seen in the selection and election of Andrew 
Johnson as Vice-President of the United States. In the })residential 
campaign of 1S()4 the friends of Lincoln regarded it as a matter of 
course that the old ticket would be renominated. The Vice 
President was perfectly neutral, content to abide by the decision of 
his party whatever it might be and his friends did not think it 
would require any special effort to secure his nomination. The 
story of the substitution of Andrew Johnson for Hannibal Hamlin 
is not a pleasing one. Suffice it here to note that the influences 
that brought it about were not due to any objection to Mr. Handin, 
but to a purpose to use the vice presidency to accomplish ulterior 
ends. The only point of interest in the nomination to Mr. Hamlin 
and his friends is the charge that it was due to Lincoln's suggestion. 
This they have indignantly denied as untrue and dishonoring to the 
memory of Lincoln. The story is a priori preposterous. Lincoln's 
character and methods were utterly opposed to the slightest color of 
belief that, while answering his friends and the trusted leaders of 
the party that he should not undertake to direct the convention in 
the choice of a candidate for vice-president, he whispered to certain 
comparatively unimportant individuals that Johnson was the man. 
If he had believed there were sound political reasons for the 
nomination of another, Mr. Hamlin would have been the first to be 



24 HANNIBAL HAMLIN 

iiifoniied by him. The (juestion is effectually settled by this state- 
ment of John G. Nicolay : — "On Sunday, the 5th of July, I went 
to Baltimore to attend the convention as a spectator. I was not a 
delegate, and had no object or mission beyond that of curiosity. 
My going was not suggested by the President, neither did he object 
when I informed him of my intention. That being the fifth year 
of my service as his confidential and official private secretary, I 
knew I would be questioned about the President's desires. I men- 
tioned this to him and asked him specially whether he wished me to 
say anything as to whom he might prefer to have associated with 
him as candidate for Vice-President. 

His answer was that all the various candidates and their several 
supporters being his friends, he deemed it unbecoming in him to 
advocate the nomination of any one of them ; but that privately 
and personally he would be best pleased if the convention would 
renominate the old ticket that had been so triumphantly elected in 
18()0, and which would show an unbroken faith and leadership in 
the Republican party, and an unbroken and undivided support of 
that party to the administration and in the prosecution of the war." 

Mr. Hamlin showed that he bore no resentment by cordially 
supporting the ticket in the campaign. At home and stumping 
through some of the middle and western states he praised Johnson 
as one of the faithful among the faithless, a man who could be 
trusted in any exigency. 

A senator was to be chosen in Maine by the legislature of ISOT) 
in consequence of the resignation of Fessenden to take the Treasury 
portfolio, and Mr. Hamlin's friends confidently expected that he 
would be elected ; but Fessenden soon had enough of the cabinet 
office and entered the field as a candiate for the position he had 
relinquished, whereupon Mr. Hamlin withdrew. 

The President desired to make Mr. Hamlin Secretary of the 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN 25 

Treasury and perhaps would have done so had the assassin's hand 
been stayed. 

He was appointed to tlie lueiative office of Collector of Customs 
of the poi-t of Boston in IcSC);") and in the year following he resigned 
the office compelled thereto by his keen sense of propriety. As an 
official he felt that he could not hold an office under an administra- 
tion whose policies he could not approve, and as a citizen, whom 
the people had honored and still regarded as one of tiie great leaders 
of the party, he felt that it was his duty to emphasize his disapproval 
of the dangerous course the President was bent on pursuing. 

After his withdrawal from the collectorship he, as president of the 
company, occupied himself with building the Piscatacjuis railroad 
and in preparing for the senatorial contest in iSdi). That struggle 
was one of the most remarkable in political annals and attracted 
the attention of the whole country. A very considerable portion 
of the population of the State of Maine went to Augusta while it 
was going on to take a hand in the exciting game. Both candi- 
dates were strong, able and j)atriotic and both deserved well of their 
party. The friends of each were the enemies of the other in a 
Pickwickian sense only. Mr. Hamlin won by that one vote whicii 
had turned the balance for or against him in previous contests. 
When he resumed his seat in the Senate he found some of his former 
colleagues there and many able men among the new senators. His 
return was cordially hailed as a valuable accession to his party asso- 
ciates and to the Senate. He continued the same course he had pur- 
sued in his former service and became a working, rather than a talk- 
ing senator. As chairman of the Committee on the District of Co- 
lumbia he was largely iirstrumental in procuring an appropriation of 
five millions of dollars for the inn)roveuient of the National ca[)ital, 
whic-h enabled Alexander R. Shepherd, the celebrated Governor of 
the District of Columbia, to inaugurate on a most extensile scale, 
the work which has made the nation's city the most attractive and 



26 HANNIBAL HAMLIN 

beautiful one in the world. He was on cordial terms with President 
Grant and heartily supported him. Mr. Hamlin said that the 
men who "grew on him" most were Webster, Lincoln and Grant. 
As a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations he rendered a 
notable service to the administration, to the country and to the 
cause of peace throughout the world, by his championship — and 
champions were needed — of the arbitration treaty with England as 
to the damage to our shipping by the English-rebel cruisers. 

At the conclusion of his term he was re-elected with but little oppo- 
sition. His relations with the new president, Hayes, were not 
close and cordial. Hayes started out with an original Southern 
policy and consulted the Bourbon leaders rather than those of his 
own party. Senator Hamlin was appointed a member of a delega- 
tion of the Republican leaders to wait upon the President and 
ascertain his position. Hayes closed his statement of his policy with 
the words, "Gentlemen, I expect as a result of my Southern policy 
that the Republican party will carry six or seven states at the next 
election." Senator Hamlin rose to his feet and replied impressively 
"Mr. President, you will not carry a single school-district." The 
President's subsequent treatment of Senator Hamlin indicated that 
he cherished a personal resentment on account of that rebuke. 
Senator Hamlin, however, did not allow personal relations to influ- 
ence him in public matters. His own judgment led him to stand 
by the administration in all important measures, notwithstanding 
powerful opposition in the Senate and adverse popular opinion. 
Among them was the question of a treaty with England as to the 
fisheries on the basis of the award of the Halifax Commission. As 
chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations he made a remark- 
able report in whicli, although he considered the award exceedingly 
unjust, he reconnnended its acceptance for the sake of furthering the 
great principle of international arbitration which was so dear to 
him. 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN 27 

It SO happened that his Imt important speech in 1S70 when the 
antagonism of Dennis Kearney and his "sand-lots" following to 
"Chinese cheap labor," caused a bill to b- rushed through the 
house modifying the Burlingame treaty with China, in a manner 
vvliich would not have been considered in the case of a treaty 
with a "civilized" country. The Chairman of the Committee on 
Foreign Relations made a noble and impressive speech, in a strain 
of the loftiest patriotism, urging the maintenance of the national 
honor and good faith and predicting in glowing terms the great- 
ness of "our empire upon the Pacific" and a "mighty commerce" 
with the far East. When minister to Spain he was warmly 
thanked by the Chinese minister to that court for his well remem- 
bered aid in securing fair treatment for China. If he had intended 
that speech to be his "swan song" he could not have made it 
sweeter and more tuneful or more accordant with the theme of the 
retirement of a patriot sage from long years of service to his 
country in the highest places. 

He made it known before the end of his term that he should 
not be a candidate for another term. His decision was not caused 
by any waning of his influence or mental power. Thomas B. Reed 
said of him : "At no time during his long and varied career could 
he have laid down so much power as when at the age of seventy- 
two he voluntarily left the Senate of the United States." 

He was wearied with the ceaseless daily round- He was so con- 
stituted that he could not disregard the calls of duty or refuse his 
help to any who asked for it and such appeals were incessant and 
ever increasing. Rather, he thought, go now while my people want 
me to stay than to linger until they want me to go. As he who 
"dying remembered sweet Argos," so in his weariment and fulness 
of years the venerable statesman tliought with longing of his quiet 
home on the Penobscot, of his beloved fields and trees, and of daily 
intercourse with old, true and tried friends and his fellow-citizens 



28 HANNIBAL HAMLIN 

in a community where respect, honor and love encircled him where- 
ever his walks might lie. 

The cessation of his senatorial career was greatly regretted by his 
compeers. No senator was ever more respected and liked by liis 
associates. Even in the hot days before the war he was on good 
terms personally with the Southern senators. Jefferson Davis was a 
personal friend. Allen G. Thurman and he maintained a close 
friendly alliance. Even the exclusive and fastidious Conkling 
yielded to the spell and could be more readily influenced by him 
than by any other senator. 

The limitations of this paper are exhausted by the simple, lean 
record of the long, useful life of its subject so that no space is left 
for reciting his achievements. The exclamation of the classic 
wanderer, "Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris," may well 
be paraphrased by asking what matter of public importance tend- 
ing to tiie welfare and advancement of the country did not receive 
the earnest support of our great statesman. 

Early in his congressional career he determined to give his 
attention to work rather than to oratory and his committee assign- 
ments gave him full opportunity to execute his purpose. Thus he 
established a reputation as "the best business man in the Senate" 
and an authority in all matters pertaining to navigation and com- 
mercial relations. 

He was always ready, however, to speak at need and he alway? 
spoke to the purpose and with effect. His was not the grand, 
laborious style of oratory having in view "the applause of listening 
senates to command." His speech was plain, simple, concise, aim- 
ing to convince, thoujih when warmed to enthusiasm in a cause that 
appealed to his heart and his imagination, he could rise to heights 
of fervid elocpience. He liked to look upon the faces of his fellow- 
countrymen and to talk directly to them, and they liked to hear 
him. Hence lie was in gi-eat request as a campaign speaker and 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN 29 

took part in all the great political contests in his day, speaking in 
many states. One, speaking of his wonderful power before the 
people, said, "Why, they believe every word he says." "The 
grand old wisdom of sincerity" was the secret of the trust he 
inspired. 

On his return to Bangor he was given a grand reception by the 
citizens of that city without distinction of party. The occasion was 
made specially notable by the receipt of many messages from his 
former colleagues of both parties and other prominent men witli 
whom he had been associated, all expressing a high estimate of his 
abilitv and public services and warm |)ersonal regard. 

President (iarfield having heai'd Mr. Hamlin nn-ntion casually 
that he would like to go abroad, tendered him the appointment of 
minister to Spain. Mr. Hamlin accepted with the understanding 
tliat he would remain but a vear. He went to his post in the fall 
of ISSI and was absent fourteen months having in the meantime 
seen many cities and met many distinguished men. In a letter 
whicli appears in the "Life and Times of Hannibal Haudin," 
the tine work of Charles Eugene Hamlin, a son of ("(nn[)anion 
Charles Handin, the nnnister writes that the "King's carriages" 
were sent I'oi- him when he went to Court to present his credentials, 
and witii what cordiality he was received. 

Tiienceforward the life of his serene old age was one of (juiet 
enjoyment of home life and association with friends and neighbors, 
and of the pleasures his farm, the woods and trout streams so 
l)()iiiitifully afforded him. On a few occasions the claims of friend- 
ship drew iiim from his retirement to a participation in the old 
activities; as when in 1 SS-l at McKinley's urgent solicitation he 
stumped the Oliio congi-essmaiTs district with him. and in 1SS7 
when lie appeared before the legislature of Maine to plead for the 
abolition of capital punishment, and again in 1880 when at the 



30 HANNIBAL HAMLIN 

invitation of President Harrison, whose nomination he was first to 
suggest, he attended the hitter"'s inauguration. 

His last conspicuous appearance before his countrymen was at 
the celebration of Lincoln's birthday by the Republican club of New 
York, five months before his death. The object that induced him 
to make such a journey at an inclement season was to urge a 
movement to make Lincoln's birthday a national holiday. When 
he arose to speak the scene must have been most impressive and 
moving. As one present said of it, "In all my life I never saw 
anything that stirred so many emotions and aroused so many 
memories as when Hannibal Hamlin pleaded with the nation to 
make Abraham Lincoln's birthday a holiday." 

There could have been no more receptive and appreciative an 
audience — an assemblage of the most patriotic and influential men 
of the metropolis, men of the keenest sensibilities, instantly respon- 
sive to every touch of nature or of art. What soul-tlirilling sensa- 
tions of tenderness, respect, and wonder that was near to awe, must 
have exalted everyone, heart and brain, looking upon the venerable 
and venerated man who, a generation before, had stood at the right 
hand of the great President — his more tlian four score years serving 
but to heighten the nobility of his presence and to soften the 
expressions of his countenance as in his sweet clear tones he voiced 
the love and honor he bore Lincoln and bespoke for him this tribute 
of the nation's remembrance and gratitude. 

On the fourth of July, 18*J1, he was suddenly stricken while 
sitting with friends at his club and in a few minutes the brave, true 
heart was still forever. He died on an anniversary of his country's 
birthday as those other patriots and statesmen, Adams and Jefi^erson. 
died. The memories of these founders of the Republic and of him 
who bore so grand a part in saving it. thus connected with the 
national holiday, deepen and heighten its significance as a sanction 
of the inviolable life of the Union. Beginning with those fathers 



HANNIBAL HAMLIN 31 

who pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to 
the cause of liberty, many strong and true men have made names 
for themselves through eminent and faithful service to their country, 
and their memories enrich the nation and enno])le humanity. 
Among tiiem none more worthily holds a place than Hannibal 
Hamlin. 



146 



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